Generally, an industrial reciprocating pump consists of three or five crankshaft-driven plungers to compress and eject fluid. A manifold is also often used to cap the open ends of the multiple plunger boxes and manage the flow during operation based on suction or discharge strokes. Traditionally, manifold pockets are provided in the manifold that communicate with the plunger chamber. Within the pockets, two individual check valves are provided to serve the suction and discharge functions, respectively. Such an arrangement can be cumbersome, as many parts are involved that can be difficult to service. Other systems involving axially combined two-valve cartridges have been developed as well.
However, as the water blast and jet industry demands higher and higher power on pumps, many new challenges have arisen. For example, high dynamic loads associated with such increases can have a significant effect on durability. Additionally, high flow requires either more plungers or larger plungers, but the former will lead to more parts and wider power frame structure while the latter will result in larger plungers and valves with ultimately higher dynamic loads. Thus improvements in valve cartridges and manifolds are desired.